In general, a glove compartment (glove box) is a storage part which is located approximately at knee height of a person who sits on a passenger seat. A door of the glove compartment is configured to be opened slowly by means of a damper, preventing the door from suddenly dropping due to its weight when the door is opened.
FIG. 1 is a sectional perspective view showing a device for opening and closing a glove compartment from a prior art. FIG. 2 is a longitudinal sectional view showing main parts of the device of the prior art. FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing that a rack member is engaged with a rear end of a housing. A damper case 11 is fixed to a lower portion of a damping unit 10 and is configured to fix the damping unit 10 to the housing 20. A rack member 30 is installed in the housing 20 so as to be moved back and forth. The rack member 30 is connected, at its front end, to a door (not shown) of a glove compartment. A gear 40, which is fixed to a rotation shaft 12 of the damping unit 10, is installed so as to mesh with a rack 31 of the rack member 30.
A boss 13 of the damper case 11 is fitted to an insertion groove 21 of the housing 20 and serves to support the damping unit 10.
A protruding step 32 is formed at a rear end of the rack member 30. The protruding step 32 prevents the rack member 30 from being demounted from the housing 20 when the door is completely opened. The opposite side of the protruding step 32 is formed to have the same width so that the rack member 30 can be assembled from the rear end of the housing 20.
When a passenger pushes the door in order to open the glove compartment when necessary, the door is opened while a lock device (not shown) of the door is released from the locked state. Therefore, the rack member 30 is moved in a front direction (F) shown in FIG. 1.
The gear 40 fixed to the rotation shaft 12 of the damping unit 10 is in mesh with a rack 31 of the rack member 30. As the rack member 30 is moved in the front direction (F), the gear 40 is rotated. Therefore, a damping force acts to gradually open the door.
However, the above-described device of the prior art has the following problems.
Since the boss of the damper case constituting the damping unit is fitted and fixed to the insertion groove of the housing, a support structure for the damping unit is weak. When the rack member is moved in the front direction in FIG. 1 due to the opening of the door, a reaction force acts on the damping unit in a direction opposite to the movement direction of the rack member. Therefore, the damping unit is prone to be tilted toward one side.
The damping unit is gradually tilted from the housing toward one side because of the repeated opening and closing of the door. Thus, noise is generated whenever the door is opened or closed.
Further, since the protruding step is formed at the rear end of the rack member so as to prevent the rack member from being demounted from the housing, the rack member must be assembled to the housing only by pushing a front end of the rack member into the housing from the rear side of the housing. This restricts a firm design for an assembly portion of the rack member where the rack member is assembled to the door. Further, the rack member may be frequently demounted from the housing.